Redeeming Society

It seems necessary today to address why and even if Christians should be involved in redeeming society and culture. There are many who deride such activity as being a diversion from the "real" work of the Church, which in their minds is reduced to nothing more than articulating the plan of salvation, narrowly understood.

However, I would counter by saying that such a distinction is often unwittingly rooted in pagan dualism that falsely elevates the "spiritual" above the material world as if these two are separate spheres of reality. This is a classical Greek and wholly unbiblical understanding of reality and its practical acceptance by many in the Church has been a major contributor to the irrelevance of Christianity in the modern West. The Bible provides no such separation of the spiritual and physical and in fact regards mankind as being unique from every other in creation precisely because of his combined natures. God's ultimate act of atonement for the sins of men was to become flesh, a real man living in the real world dying a real death and being bodily resurrected. Secondly, God is very much interested in the material world [His creation] as it too remains an object of His plan of redemption which will be consummated in the new heaven and earth.

In addition, to reduce the Gospel to only the "plan of salvation" is to minimize God's relationship to the world and Christ's authority. The "good news" validated by the coming of Christ is that our God reigns! The fact that all men were alienated from God and all of creation groans under the weight of sin is overcome by the work of Christ. Men and women are set free from the eternal bondage to sin and enlisted in the service of the King as the Body of Christ to "do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do." These "good works" include acts of mercy, charity, service as well as efforts that mitigate the effects of the Fall in society. In other words, redeeming the institutions of culture and conditions of society by bringing them in conformity to the biblical understanding of reality.

Our neglect in this area of redeeming culture only communicates that we -- and worse, God -- are not interested in the real world or the real conditions that adversely affect human beings. This sentiment prompted Dorothy Sayers, the friend and associate of C.S. Lewis to comment; "Why would anyone remain interested in a religion that seems to have no interest in nine-tenths of his [or her] life?" By not holding to a broader view of the Gospel that certainly culminates in saving grace but is not limited to it, we communicate precisely this idea. This only furthers this dualistic thinking which results in reducing Christianity to nothing more than a private belief and not a public truth.

This simplistic view of the Gospel also tends to encourage programmatic evangelism methods that rely on rote presentations presented to masses of strangers rather than encouraging personal interaction in which believers demonstrate their love and share their story which when combined in sincerity bear witness to the life changing power of Jesus Christ.

I am not suggesting that we should abandon evangelism training; I am only saying that we should be training the Church to not only express the Gospel but also to demonstrate the Gospel. Additionally, we need to recover an all-encompassing view of the Gospel.

By recovering a redemptive approach to society in which the Body of Christ takes on real social problems; the Church assumes a viable role in the culture and Christian claims to truth once again rise to the level of public plausibility. To be more specific, when I say "redemptive approach" I am speaking about a conscious approach to bringing the institutions of culture under the guidance of a biblical worldview and working to remedy societal ills and human suffering through systemic changes to the conditions producing these ill effects.

Historic examples of this would include the actions and efforts of countless Christians to bring about the abolition of slavery -- men such as William Wilberforce for example. It was Christians who fought for and succeeded in bringing about reform in the 19th century penal system and child labor laws. It was Christians such as George Mueller who tackled the epidemic problem of orphans by building orphanages and caring for tens of thousands of previously indigent children. It was Christians such as Clara Barton who saw a need to provide humane care for soldiers, prisoners of war and veterans and thus established the American Red Cross and was instrumental in ratifying the rules of the Geneva Convention. These were real conditions affecting real human lives and Christians, motivated by the love of Christ, were providing real solutions that bore witness to the redemptive power of Jesus Christ.

Thankfully these efforts continue in some form today but the fact is our society and her people continue to suffer and there is no doubt we could be doing much more. Furthermore, if we were to once again take seriously our redemptive role in the world as being inclusive of both people and the societies in which they live I contend that the culture would find it more difficult to marginalize Christianity and the Church. This tangible demonstration of the Gospel would provide more favorable conditions into which the Church could then express the Gospel.

So let us put aside this Platonic dualism and recover the application of the full Gospel to the whole of life - both individual and social. What are the problems in your community that the Lord desires you to change? I would encourage you to ponder this question and seek the Lord's guidance. Imagine a nation in which every professing follower of Christ sought the Lord's will in this area and acted upon the desire to glorify Christ by becoming a redemptive influence in their communities.

Copyright 2007 S. Michael Craven

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S. Michael Craven is the Founding Director of the Center for Christ & Culture, a ministry of the National Coalition for the Protection of Children & Families. The Center for Christ & Culture is dedicated to renewal within the Church and works to equip Christians with an intelligent and thoroughly Christian approach to matters of culture in order to recapture and demonstrate the relevance of Christianity to all of life. For more information on the Center for Christ & Culture, additional resources and other works by S. Michael Craven visit: www.battlefortruth.org

Michael lives in the Dallas area with his wife Carol and their three children.